Today, a disconnect exists between management and IT departments that exacerbate the multi-billion-dollar losses and cybersecurity expenses that organizations incur every year. This misalignment stems from a traditional “silo” approach to cybersecurity: management orchestrates the daily operations of the company, while the security team focuses on cyberthreats. This results in what RSA calls a “gap of grief,” which impairs an organization’s ability to mitigate and defend against threats. RSA outlines several key steps to bridge this gap by transforming a disconnected approach into a business-driven security™ strategy.
Understanding the Gap of Grief
Business-driven security™ has the goal of adding context to cybersecurity. When a data breach happens, management is less interested in the technical aspects of the attack; they want to understand the exposure and damage in business terms. When an organization successfully bridges the gap of grief, the two formerly independent units work on the same page and with a mutual perspective.
Organizations must consider four goals when developing this strategy:
- Full Visibility: Organizations that empower their IT departments with 360-degree visibility ensure that the security team can fully monitor the enterprise’s cyber ecosystem.
- Rapid Insight: The more time a company needs to assess the damage of a security breach, the greater its risk.
- Response: Organizations must quickly turn rapid insight into action by automating responses to suspicious user activity.
- Contextual Intelligence: Security teams must understand the business context of the systems to accurately assess the impact of a security breach and respond accordingly.
Bridging the Gap of Grief
Security teams must fully understand what the normal operations of the organization look like in order to truly comprehend anomalies, and management has to understand security risks so that they can avoid introducing practices that render an organization vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Transform to a business-driven security™ strategy using these six steps:
- Prioritize assets and processes and understand their vulnerabilities.
- Quantify business risks. What does it mean to continue operations when something has been compromised?
- Build a holistic defense strategy by leveraging your people, processes, and technology.
- Figure out how far you are from your ideal security operations. You need to know your destination before you chart the course.
- Plan in phases using the information you’ve gathered about priorities, risk, availability of assets, and your current status.
- Evolve when necessary. Make this an ongoing and evolving plan. Threats change daily, so you must be nimble and adapt through periodic re-evaluation.
Cyberthreats are devastating. Billions are spent globally to stave off relentless security attacks, but unless business and security come together and align their strategies, these threats will continue to exist and disrupt organizational operations. Read more about business-driven security™ strategies and learn how your organization can bridge the gap of grief.
If you’re interested in building a business-driven security™ strategy, let’s talk. CSCI is a partner to RSA, dovetailing the solution provider’s integrated risk management tools with our comprehensive understanding of Government business operations and IT infrastructures. Together, we deliver state-of-the-art solutions that position Federal and State organizations to effectively build a cybersecurity defense. Let us show you how RSA products can be tailored to meet your risk objectives.
